Fault-responsive control apparatus for coil winding machines



July 23, 1957 Filed lay 22'. 195] W. REINERS ETAL FAULT-RESPONSIVE CONTROL APPARATUS FOR COIL WINDING MACHINES- 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventors.-

y 1957 w. REINERS ETAL 2, 0

FAULT-RESPONSIVE CONTROL. APPARATUS FOR con. WINDING MACHINES Filed llay 22. 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventors [(444 7'5? A E/A4569 5 54 @957 United States Patent FAULT-RESPONSIVE CONTROL APPARATUS FOR COIL WINDING MACHINES Walter Reiners, Waldniel, and Stefan Fiirst, M. -Gladbach, Germany; said Fiirst assignor to said Reiners This invention relates to automatic coil winding machines and particularly to apparatus for controlling the operation of such machines in response to breaks or other faults of the thread material being wound.

Such faults, requiring the winder to be stopped and the thread to be mended, may be due to the use of poor yarn, unfavorable feeding conditions, or deficiencies in control operations. When they occurtoo frequently, the the efliciency of the machine operation may be greatly impaired.

It is therefore an object of the invention to minimize the conditions that may result in such an impairment. More specifically, our invention aimsat obtaining an automatic elimination and substitution of any yarn or thread supply bobbin that is too faulty to merit a continuation of the time-consuming stopping and mending operations. I

To this end, and in accordance with a feature, of the invention, we control the bobbin exchange at each individual winding place in response to the occurrence or correction of a predeterminednurnber of faults so that when the thread supply from a bobbin shows more than an average number of thread breaks, this bobbin is antomatically replaced'even though it may be far from exhausted.

According to another, more specific feature of the invention, the thread being wound is checked by a feeler after each individual fault-responsive control operation, this feeler being disposed between the thread tensioner and thecoil being wound. The number or frequency of the thread breaks sensed by the feeler is counted by an indicating or recording counting device which, when a predetermined total is reached, causes the bobbin exchange mechanism to operate. This exchange operation is also controlled in dependence upon the wound-up length of the thread.

The counting may be effected in response to each sensing movement of the feeler, or by measuring the time needed for the control operations or the amount of heat generated thereby, or in response to other quantities, such as pressure, volume or electric current consumption, that reach an adjustable maximum value as a cumulative result of the thread breaks.

According to another feature of the invention, the thread is also checked by a feelerfor a short interval of time after each tying operation; and the number or frequency of any tying faults is indicated and, if required, a signal device is operated.

According to still another feature of the invention, We provide additional feeler means that, at the beginning of each fault-responsive control operation, test the remainder of thread on the supply bobbin for thickness and release the bobbin exchange if this thickness is below a desired magnitude. p

The foregoing and more specific features of the invention will be apparent from the following in conjunction with the drawing on which:

2,800,287 Patented July 23, 1957 "ice Fig. 1 shows diagrammatically a portion of a control apparatus according to the invention;

Fig. 2 shows in detail a counting device pertaining to the apparatus portion shown in Fig. 1; and.

Fig. 3 shows the remaining portion of the same apparatus, the thread winding and tensioning means being duplicated in Fig. 3 to make the positional relation of the two portions better apparent. The terminal points 29 and 30 in Fig. 3 are identical with the correspondingly denoted points in Figs. 1 and 2.

A thread guide drum 2 is fastened on a shaft 1. The shaft 1 turns in bearings which are not shown on the drawings. A wind-up spool 3 rests upon the thread guide drum 2 to be driven thereby. Bobbin 3 is rotatable in a winding frame 4, which swings about a stationary shaft 5 when the winding on spool 3 increases in diameter. Feelers 6 and 7 (Fig. I) bear against the thread F near thread support points 8, 9, 10, 11 disposed behind the thread. The feeler 6 is rotatable about a fixed pivot 12 and carries a lever 13 with a contact 14. Feeler 7 is rotatable about a fixed pivot 15 and carries a lever 18 with a contact 16 and a control pin 17. Connected to contact 14 is an electric circuit 19, 20 which is fed by a current source 21 and which has a stationary contact 22 opposite the movable contact 14. The circuit 19, 20 passes through a normally closed cut-out switch 23 which may break the circuit 19, 20 at contacts 24 and 25. Connected with the same circuit 19, 2-0 are a magnet 26 and a measuring or counting instrument 27. Each time the feeler 6, in response to a thread break, closes the circuit 19, 20 between contacts 14 and 22, the pointer of instrument 27 advances one step until it reaches an adjusted limit contact 28. Then the pointer and the contact 28 interconnect two leads 29 and 30, thus closing the control circuit of the bobbin-exchanging control devices described below with reference to Fig. 3.

The circuit 19, 20 energizes the electromagnet 26 each time the feeler 6 senses a thread break. The electromagnet 26 operates a slide 31, which engages a notch 32 in a control disc 33. .The control disc 33 is mounted together with two control discs 34 and 35 on a common driving shaft 36. Shaft 36 also carries a control cam 84, shown separately in Fig. 3, as well as any other control cams (notshown) that may be necessary for performing the desired operations. Control disc 34 has a machined recess 37. Control disc 35 has a recess 38 and a control cam 39. The illustrated position of the control discs corresponds to the position of rest of the disc assembly. After the initiation of each control operation released by magnet 26, the control discs perform one revolution in the direction of the arrow 40.

The contact 16 on lever 18 of feeler 7 coacts with a stationary contact 16' to close a circuit 41, 42 which is fed by a current source 43 and which includes an operating magnet 44 for the cut-out switch 23. The current source 43 also feeds the circuit 45 of a signal 46. Circuit 45 is closed by means of a measuring instrument 47 through contact engagement of a pointer 48 with an adjustable limit contact 49. Hence the signal 46 is actuated only when the instrument 47 has responded to a predetermined numberof responses of feeler 7.

The instrument 27, or analogously the instrument 47, may be designed as exemplified by Fig. 2. In Fig. 2,

points 19, 20 pertain to circuit 19, 20 in Fig 1, and

3 .r The ratchet wheel 53 has an arm to abut against an adjustable stop 58 and carries a movable contact 59. The corresponding stationary contact 61 is connected with lead 29 by 'a lead 60.

As shown in Fig. 3, a feeler 63 is' disposed ahead of the thread tensioner 62 and cooperates with thread .guide parts 64. Feeler 63 is rotatable about a pivot '65 and carries a contact 66.' The thread passing between feeler 63 and parts 64 is supplied from a bobbin '67. Bobbin 67 is shown nearly exhausted, the residual amount of thread being denoted by 68; A feeler 69, rotatably mounted on a stationary pivot 70, carries a lever 71 and a contact 72. Contact 72 is connected to the lead 30, to which the contact 66 is also connected. A connecting lead 73 is attached to stationary contacts 74, 75 and to a lever contact 76. A lead 77 connects a current source 78 with a stationary contact 79 engageable by the contact 76. Connected between source 78 and lead 30 is a magnet 80 which, when-energized, moves a magnet core 81 with an operating rod 82 in the direction of the arrow 83. The rod 82 then efiects the operation of the bobbin exchange devices (not shown) in a manner known as such and not essential to the invention.

A control disc 84, mounted on the driving shaft 36 and turning in the direction of the arrow 92, has a cam 85 engaged by a follower lever 87 pivoted at 86. Lever 87'is linked to a control rod '88 with stop rings 89 and 90. A buffer spring 91 is inserted between the stop ring 90 and the lever 71.

The apparatus operates as follows: On the occurrence of a thread break between the thread tensioner 62 and the winding bobbin 3 (Fig. l), the feeler 6 swings anti-clockwise and closes the circuit 19, at contacts 14 and 22. This energizes the magnet 26 to operate the slide 31, thus releasing a revolution of the control discs 33, 34, 35 in the direction of the arrow 48 (Fig. 1) and of cam 84 in the same direction (92 in Fig. 3). The measuring instrument 27 in circuit 19, 20 counts, measures, or records the number or frequency of the thread breaks and, when reaching the adjustable limit contact 28, connects the leads 29, with each other. This energizes the magnet 80 (Fig. 3) whereby the replacement of the feeding bobbin is efiectedon the occasion of the next following control operation as more fully explained below with reference to Fig. 3.

The measuring or counting instrument 27, designed for'example according to Fig. 2, makes certain that only a predetermined adjustable number of thread breaks may occur or be corrected per feeding bobbin. If this adjustable number of thread breaks is exceeded, the feeding bobbin 67 is automatically replaced. This comes about as follows. a

Each individual excitation of magnet 50 (Fig. 2) occurring after each thread break has the-elfect of causing the pawl 51 to advance the ratchet wheel 53 one tooth until contact 59 meets the contact 61. Then the circuit 29, 38 is prepared-so that it will be closed at contacts 76, 79 (Fig. 3) during the next following control operation, so that the magnet 80 will become energized to effect a bobbin exchange. As soon as the contacts 76, '79 close, the reset magnet 55 (Fig. 2) in circuit 29, 30 is also excited. It lifts the pawl 51 and the detent 57 away from the ratchet wheel 53 which, under its own weight, drops back to its starting position against "the stop '58.

The feeler 6 can swing in the anti-clockwise direction only when-the control disc 34 is in the illustrated position (Fig. l) where the recess 37 lies opposite the-lever 13. Hence during each .control operation, the feeler .6 with its levers 13 and 14 is prevented by control disc 34 from feeling the thread F.

The feeler 7 ,is normally prevented from feeling the thread F since 'pin 17 of this feeler bears against the cam periphery of the control disc 35. .During a control oe'ratiomhowcver, the recess 38 ofdisc passes along pin 17 and then temporarily releases the feeler 7. This occurs only after the rotation of disc 35 in the direction of arrow 40 and hence after the completion of all control operations necessary for thread tying and spool changing, but still during the continued running of control discs 35, 34, 33. In this manner, the feeler 7 is caused to feel the thread F for a short time in order to check whether the thread F is correctly knotted. If the tying operation was faulty, the feeler moves anticlockwise and closes the contacts 16, 16 thus completing the circuit 41, 42 fed by the current source 43, whereby the measuring instrument 47 counts or records. In the event of a repeated absence of thread, i. e. when control failures occur too often, the signal 46 is operated by the actuation of the adjustable contact 49 in instrument 47. In addition, the number or frequency of control failures is at any time indicated by the instrument 47.

During a response to control failures in the abovedescribed manner, the magnet 44 in circuit 41, 42 is energized so that the switch 23 opens and interrupts the circuit 19, 20 at points 24, 25. This prevents the feeler 6 from passing any signal to the instrument 27 even though the feeler 6, at the completion of a faulty tying operation, may swing out in the counter-clockwise direction. When, after a thread break, the feeler 7 has moved in the counter-clockwise direction, it thereafter remains in that position even when the control disc 35' is at rest, the pin 17 then being located in the control groove 39.

In Fig. 3 the piece of thread between the feeding bobbin 67 and the thread tensioner 62 is engaged by the feeler 63. In addition, the residual roll 68 of the feeding bobbin'67 is engaged by the feeler 69.

The feeler lever 63 is released for operation during the short interval of time in which the cam 85 of control disc 84 depresses the control lever 87 and the control rod 88 with the stop ring 89. During that interval, the contacts 76 and 79 are closed by the downward movement of rod 88, and the feeler 63, no longer stopped by ring 89, can move in a clockwise direction. As long as the thread'F is present betweenthe parts 64 and the lever 63, the movement of feeler 63, is not suflicient to bring the feeler contact 66 into engagement with contact 75. If there is no thread between the feeding bobbin 67 and the thread tensioner 62, however, the contact 66 .reaches the contact 75. This closes the circuit of magnet 80 from current source 78 through lead 77, contact 79, lever contact 76, supply lead 73, contacts 75, 66 and lead 30. The magnet 80 now attracts its core 81 and moves an operating rod 82 in the direction of the arrow 83, thus effecting an exchange of the bobbin at the beginning of the control'operation.

The feeler 69 is resiliently held against bobbin 67 by the action of spring 91 seated on rod 88 against stop ring 90. At the beginning of the control operation, the feeler 69 closes the contacts 72, 74 if at that time the residual amount of thread 68 is reduced below a predetermined thickness. This also causes the magnet to effect a bobbin exchange.

We claim:

1. The method of fault-responsively controlling a coil winding machine, which comprises the steps of counting the number of faults occurring at an individual winding place, sensing the amount of wound-up thread, and effecting a corrective control operation when the counted number reaches a given value only when said amount sensed exceeds -a given value.

2. The method of fault-responsively controlling a coil winding machine, which comprises thesteps of counting the number of faults occurring at an individual winding place, sensing theamount of woundeup thread, mechanically forming the ratio of counted number to sensed amount, and stopping ;the winding operation at said place when said ratio exceeds a given limit value.

3. The method of fault-responsively controlling a coil winding machine, which comprises the steps of counting the number of faults occurring at an individual winding place, Sensing the amount of wound-up thread, mechanically forming the ratio of counted number to sensed amount, and supplying the winding place with a new thread when said ratio exceeds a given value.

4. Fault-responsive control apparatus for thread winding machines, comprising feeler means responsive to breakage of the thread being wound, a counting device connected with said feeler means and controlled thereby to count the number of breakages of the thread, and corrective control means connected with said counting device and responsive only when said number reaches a given limit value.

5. Fault-responsive control apparatus for coil winding machines, comprising feeler means responsive to thread faults, a counting device connected with said feeler means and controlled thereby to count the number of faults, a thread-amount sensing device, and bobbin-exchange control means connected with said two devices to be controlled thereby when the counted number of faults exceeds a given value for a given or greater amount of thread sensed by said thread-amount sensing device.

6. Fault-responsive control apparatus for coil winding machines, comprising feeler means responsive to thread faults, a counting device connected with said feeler means, said counting device having a stepping member progressively movable one step for each fault and having first electric contact means connected with said member and closed only when said member reaches a position corresponding to a given number of faults, a bobbin feeler having second electric contact means closed only when a given minimum or lesser'amount of thread is wound up, an electromagnetic bobbin-exchange control device, and a control circuit connecting said control device with said first and second contact means for actuating said control device in dependence upon which of said contact means closes first.

7. Fault-responsive control apparatus for coil winding machines, comprising bobbin holding means, coil winding means, and a thread tensioner disposed between said holding means and said winding means, in combination with a first thread feeler between said tensioner and said winding means to respond to thread breaks, a second thread feeler disposed between said tensioner and said holding means to respond to exhaustion of thread supply, a counting device connected with said first feeler for counting the number of its responses, said counting device having first contact means operable when said number reaches a given value, said second feeler having second contact means operative for each feeler response, and bobbin-exchange control means having an energizing circuit, said first contact means and said second contact means being parallel connected in said circuit.

8. Fault-responsive control apparatus for coil winding machines, comprising a thread tensioner and coil winding means defining together a path for the thread to be wound, two feelers disposed one behind the other along said path and having respective electric contact means closed when said respective feelers respond to thread faults, a releasable mechanism having a single cycle of movement for each release and being lockingly engageable with said two feelers, said mechanism having a rest position in which one of said feelers is unlocked for response to thread breaks and in which said other feeler is looked, a releasing circuit connecting said mechanism with said contact means of said one feeler for releasing said mechanism for one cycle of movement in response to thread break, said mechanism having during said movement a temporary position in which said other feeler is unlocked for response to tying faults, two counting devices connected with said contact means of said respective feelers for counting the respective numbers of thread breaks and tying faults, each of said counting device having an adjustable limit contact closed when the count reaches a desired number, and bobbinexchange control means connected with said limit contacts of said two counting devices to be actuated when one of said limit contact closes.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8, comprising feeler means responsive to the amount of the wound-up thread and having contact means also connected with said bobbin-exchange control means for actuating the latter when said amount reaches a given value.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 508,652 Thomson Nov. 14, 1893 2,017,949 Cobb Oct. 22, 1935 2,068,014 Fulton Jan. 19, 1937 I 2,134,018 Alderman Oct. 25, 1938 2,284,730 Elvin et al. June 2, 1942 2,463,028 Frist et al. Mar. 1, 1949 2,580,552 Kimpton Jan. 1, 1952 

